South Africa's Rosko Specman tries to find a hole in New Zealand's defense in their quarterfinal match of the World Rugby Sevens Series in Dubai. Photo / AP.
The post-Sir Gordon Tietjens era has begun in poor fashion for the New Zealand Sevens.
The All Blacks Sevens side - 12-time World Sevens Series champions - also lost their classifying final match 20-12 against Australia to finish the tournament in seventh place after two wins and three defeats.
Interim
co-coach Tomasi Cama believes that a lack of preparation was a factor in the side's far from convincing start.
"We had a week to get together, that's not a lot of time an obviously the boys haven't been playing any sevens at all since the Olympics so we were behind from the get-go," Cama told The Gulf News. "We got taught a good lesson that if you come under-prepared at this level that's what you're going to get."
Cama, standing in as coach with Scott Waldrom before new man Clark Laidlaw arrives, is hopeful that his team will learn from this experience and be ready when the team heads to Cape Town next week.
